I fix to that would be allowing only a few trade attempts per sim. Encourage the conversation you are wanting without blindly throwing out offers for a bite.

Just clicking the trade box on the player card isnt enough when time is an element when it comes to making trades. Figuring out each individual owners player weights is impossible because 32 owners may see the same player very differently. If I have to make some hard cuts to get my roster down to the limit, the best way to accomplish this is to make a trade before just cutting someone.

The most sucess I have had when it comes to trading is to send the same trade to every owner along with a PM stating that fact plus I am open to alternate offers. Its time consuming because if the league is full, you have to make 31 seperate trade offers and in each case make sure the trade value is balanced. Yes, Im fishing for someone that would be interested but I am not looking to upset any owner or rip any owner off.

If I can trade a player that I have to cut and get value for him in return, why wouldnt I or any owner for thay matter. I may have to cut a player for multiple reasons, too many players on roster, free up cap space for free agents or draft picks, or simply to get under the cap in general.

Some owners say well you are trying to trade a player you are gonna cut so you are ripping someone off. I disagree with that as well because cutting a player does not guarantee any owner will get that player on the waiver wire. It goes by worst record to best record and if you have a good team that isnt at the top of the waiver list then giving up a future 4th or 5th to secure that player may be worth it to that owner.

The bottom line is this....roster management is approximately 40-45% of this sim (90% in roster only leagues) and as an owner, you should never cut any player without exploring the opportunity to trade that player 1st. Since most cuts need to be made within a 24 hour period, you have to be proactive and send out trade offers to create a market for thay player. Obviosly a 40/45 DT that busted hard in training camp isnt worth the time to seek a trade partner because that player will have no value. Im talking about players that may have value to some owners. Also age should not be a deterrent when it comes to sending trade offers, in a perfect world every owner wants 2-5 year players but I can make a case for plenty of 8-10 year veteran players. How many owners sign aging veterans in free agency when they have a position of need to low value/low risk contracts? If you have a playoff ready team and suffer a season ending injury at say MLB1, free agency is a waste land and you receive a trade offer for a 10 year MLB that would immediately start, would that player be worth a future 4th or maybe even a 3rd? It all depends on each individual owner.

I had a team that consistly made the playoffs, we were an offensive machine with a stud QB. We always fell short in the playoffs losing shootouts like 42-38 and 45-42. The problem was as much as we could score, we couldnt stop anyone because no matter how many DBs we drafted to sure up our secondary, they would bust and free agency was a ghost town. I finally traded for a 9 year CB rated in the 90s which helped this team reach the promised land.

My point is that EVERY OWNER that needs to cut a player with any value at all should be exploring trading that player first. Whats better cut and recieve nothing but cap space or trade and get a 7th rounder plus cap space? I have never logged into the game, saw that I have recieved a trade offer and been annoyed. Sure I have recieved some horrible offers and I have rejected them with a PM explaining why I felt it was a bad offer. I keep my reply civil and simply state the facts that my 90 speed CB1 plus a 2nd round pick is worth way more then a 85 rated RG despite what the trade value meter says.

Honestly, I believe that the predatory trading done by some veteran owners to newbies would end if the trade value system was fixed. A RG rated 90/92 with a trade score of 2600 isnt worth more then a CB rated 85/90 with a +90 speed, m2m and b%r and a 70/75 RB with +90 speed plus you have to throw in a 2nd rounder to to reach the 1300 necessary to balance the trade. I do get why owners find trading to be broken and see every offer as a scam. I dont know how to change that and I wish I did because I love trading, it is a great part of this game, trading one on one with another owner, negotiating a deal so both owners feel they helped their team.

I didn't mean to imply that owners shouldn't try to get value through a trade for older players.. or any player they may end up cutting, they absolutely should. In my opinion, the trade value assigned to older players and players that would generally be second string is often much to high compared to the value of draft picks. If you take away the trade score and let the market set the value, I'd think people might be less hesitant to trade for that 10th year tackle to make a run at it etc.

Just an opinion. It's a great game, but right now my QB's are brain dead so I'm mad. lol

I agree, 4.4 and 4.5 have really hampered offense. Gone are the big passing days of 4.3 but it went to far the other way. 4.4 made WR1 useless and 4.5 improved it some but not enough. Ive personally cut my teams in half and just by reading the forums, alot of owners are frustated and on the verge of quiting. New versions every season are making it impossible to figure out what works, what players to sign and draft and makes this roster building sim very difficult to do. The beauty of this game is in the long view. Taking a team and building them over the coarse of seasons through free agency and the draft and turning them into contenders and hopefully winning a championship. When 1 season is 4.3, the next 4.4 and the following is 4.5. It makes constantly building and improving difficult because each season you have to recalculate what works and what positions are important and what weights to set for each position.

Its led me to keep retooling every season, changing directions to fit the new version which leads to higher dead cap and destroying what was previously built.

There are two approaches to playing the game.

First, try and figure out the flaws in programing and exploit them for the purpose of winning games. It was easy to do in the first couple of versions. More difficult, but not impossible, even in the recent versions.

Second, just pretend you are a real life GM and build your team roster and game plan as you would under those circumstances. Although it can be frustrating at times, this is the path I have chosen - with more success than not.

Under the second scenario, as the game engine improves, the results should be more real life imitating - and more fun. It's also easier for jdavid to improve the game engine if we all tried the second approach and gave constructive feedback about the game results.

I hope that when it's all said and done, jdavid will end up with a product that is marketable and praiseworthy.

I agree, Im in the rivals league and its full of experienced owners offering feedback. I cut back on teams to focus more on my core teams and the league I am admin in (XFL league)

Unfortunately many owners have been quiting all together and without owners to fill leagues, this sim doesnt work. In my opinion, its a great game but we need more people taking over admin duties in a real way. With less owners playing, leagues will fold and the leagues that survive will be the leagues with active admins.

I have no problem adapting, I win consistently no matter the version but I worry about the future of the game I love because we cant continue to alienate veteran owners and new owners wont stick around when QBs are throwing 23/25 passes for 150 yards.

The great part of this game is seeing a player you draft play 8 or 9 seasons putting up hall of fame numbers but with the recent version changes Ive had WRs with 5 straight 1000 yard seasons suddenly drop to a 260 yards season. Same QB, HC, Off Cord, completely different results. It is frustrating and without that type of feedback, it wont be fixed. QB completion percentage went through the roof with half of most leagues having QBs with over 80% completion ratings but RB were the target 90% of the time. That is the constructive feedback that has been talked about in the Rivals league.

The problem is version 4.4 should never have been released. We have a beta league for a reason and if it was used for a few seasons there first, we never would have been subjected to it causing owners to quit the game. Itvws rushed, meaning negative feedback which meant 4.5 was rushed to fix it. I admire the man for what he created but I feel like he felt pressured by a certain few to "fix" the game and didnt allow the beta league to do what its designed to do.

Its just my opinion